What's the difference between sail and tack?

Sail


Definition:

  • (n.) An extent of canvas or other fabric by means of which the wind is made serviceable as a power for propelling vessels through the water.
  • (n.) Anything resembling a sail, or regarded as a sail.
  • (n.) A wing; a van.
  • (n.) The extended surface of the arm of a windmill.
  • (n.) A sailing vessel; a vessel of any kind; a craft.
  • (n.) A passage by a sailing vessel; a journey or excursion upon the water.
  • (n.) To be impelled or driven forward by the action of wind upon sails, as a ship on water; to be impelled on a body of water by the action of steam or other power.
  • (n.) To move through or on the water; to swim, as a fish or a water fowl.
  • (n.) To be conveyed in a vessel on water; to pass by water; as, they sailed from London to Canton.
  • (n.) To set sail; to begin a voyage.
  • (n.) To move smoothly through the air; to glide through the air without apparent exertion, as a bird.
  • (v. t.) To pass or move upon, as in a ship, by means of sails; hence, to move or journey upon (the water) by means of steam or other force.
  • (v. t.) To fly through; to glide or move smoothly through.
  • (v. t.) To direct or manage the motion of, as a vessel; as, to sail one's own ship.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) If we’re waiting around for the Democratic version to sail through here, or the Republican version to sail through here, all those victims who are waiting for us to do something will wait for days, months, years, forever and we won’t get anything done.” Senator Bill Nelson, whose home state of Florida is still reeling from the Orlando shooting, said he felt morally obligated to return to his constituents with results.
  • (2) Porec , a port in Istria, is a good place to learn to sail; try the marina (marina-porec@pu.tel.hr) or istra-yachting.com .
  • (3) The coke sailed up my nasal passage, leaving behind the delicious smell of a hot leather car seat on the way back from the beach.
  • (4) The passengers were then flown to an Australian icebreaker, the Aurora Australis, which had cracked through ice floes and was now sailing towards Australia's Casey research base.
  • (5) He set sail on his $15m yacht Sorcerer II on an unending voyage with the mission, along the way, "to put everything that Darwin missed into context" and map the whole world's genetic components.
  • (6) When I clambered onto the fishing boat after the last men left, it occurred to me that an armed smuggler might be hiding below deck, waiting to sail the boat back to Libya.
  • (7) Ships should be able to sail directly over the north pole by the middle of this century, considerably reducing the costs of trade between Europe and China but posing new economic, strategic and environmental challenges for governments, according to scientists.
  • (8) "In ocean races in sailing a handicap prize is awarded as well as a line honours prize to recognise sailing skill rather than simply the newest and most expensive boat," writes Benjamin Penny.
  • (9) For most people this ship has sailed and they want to move on.
  • (10) The new royal research ship will be sailing into the world’s iciest waters to address global challenges that affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people, including global warming, the melting of polar ice and rising sea levels,” he said.
  • (11) The 700-strong trade mission to Emperor Qianlong sailed in a man-of-war equipped with 66 guns, compromising diplomats, businessmen and soldiers, but it ended in an impasse with the emperor refusing to meet them, saying: "We the celestial empire have never valued ingenious articles, nor do we have the slightest need of your country's manufactures."
  • (12) Fabregas hammers it down the middle, the ball sailing slightly to the left before bulging the net.
  • (13) The SAILS offers a criterion-based means of quantifying patient functional status for both clinical and research applications.
  • (14) The broadcast featured panoramic shots of the hundreds of boats, tugs, cruisers and canoes sailing past the Houses of Parliament during the pageant staged as part of the national celebrations in June.
  • (15) "I don't know why," he says, but it's something that didn't even happen at his lowest ebb: amid the bleakness of the early 70s, he somehow kept sporadically producing incredible songs: Til I Die, This Whole World, Sail On Sailor… There's always touring, however.
  • (16) Back in Liverpool, however: "My great-grandfather on my mother's side was a qualified ship's captain, but was never allowed to sail out of Liverpool as such, because the crews would not take orders from a black captain.
  • (17) Ahmad boarded at roughly the same time, calling to tell his family he would be sailing for Italy that night.
  • (18) Tourists Guy and Jo from Margaret River, in Western Australia, were preparing to sail in the lagoon in a glass-bottom boat when a police officer stopped them.
  • (19) A similar surge was expected this “sailing season”, Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR, told Guardian Australia.
  • (20) Some of those operations may “sail close to the wind” in terms of breaking existing laws.

Tack


Definition:

  • (n.) A stain; a tache.
  • (n.) A peculiar flavor or taint; as, a musty tack.
  • (n.) A small, short, sharp-pointed nail, usually having a broad, flat head.
  • (n.) That which is attached; a supplement; an appendix. See Tack, v. t., 3.
  • (v. t.) A rope used to hold in place the foremost lower corners of the courses when the vessel is closehauled (see Illust. of Ship); also, a rope employed to pull the lower corner of a studding sail to the boom.
  • (v. t.) The part of a sail to which the tack is usually fastened; the foremost lower corner of fore-and-aft sails, as of schooners (see Illust. of Sail).
  • (v. t.) The direction of a vessel in regard to the trim of her sails; as, the starboard tack, or port tack; -- the former when she is closehauled with the wind on her starboard side; hence, the run of a vessel on one tack; also, a change of direction.
  • (v. t.) A contract by which the use of a thing is set, or let, for hire; a lease.
  • (v. t.) Confidence; reliance.
  • (v. t.) To fasten or attach.
  • (v. t.) Especially, to attach or secure in a slight or hasty manner, as by stitching or nailing; as, to tack together the sheets of a book; to tack one piece of cloth to another; to tack on a board or shingle; to tack one piece of metal to another by drops of solder.
  • (v. t.) In parliamentary usage, to add (a supplement) to a bill; to append; -- often with on or to.
  • (v. t.) To change the direction of (a vessel) when sailing closehauled, by putting the helm alee and shifting the tacks and sails so that she will proceed to windward nearly at right angles to her former course.
  • (v. i.) To change the direction of a vessel by shifting the position of the helm and sails; also (as said of a vessel), to have her direction changed through the shifting of the helm and sails. See Tack, v. t., 4.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Tiny, tiny... rodents – some soft and grey, some brown with black stripes, in paintings, posters, wallcharts, thumb-tacked magazine clippings and poorly executed crayon drawings, hurling themselves fatally in their thousands over the cliff of their island home; or crudely taxidermied and mounted, eyes glazed and little paws frozen stiff – on every available surface.
  • (2) But fresh evidence that waiting times are creeping up, despite David Cameron's pledge to keep them low, has forced Lansley to change tack and impose an extra treatment directive on the NHS.
  • (3) The Department for Culture, Media and Sport also left the door open for a change of tack over the use of the licence fee, saying that if "better options than the government's preferred one emerge in the meantime", it will "consider them".
  • (4) Two eyes with complex detachments with fixed rolled retinas could not have been repaired without the help of retinal tacks.
  • (5) The government needs to change tack and admit that its obsession with structural changes to schools has failed.” Ofsted chief criticises independent schools' lack of help for state schools Read more Wilshaw’s letter was based on the results of inspections of the management and operations of seven academy chains running 220 schools across the country: AET, E-Act, Wakefield City Academies, Oasis, CfBT, The Education Fellowship and the most recent, School Partnership Trust Academies (SPTA).
  • (6) "It was done to silence her," Akbulatov says, speaking in Memorial's office, a colour photo of Estemirova tacked to the wall.
  • (7) On some issues - particularly Europe - Lib Dems in the south have to tack more to the right.
  • (8) Syrian security forces were reported to have launched another wave of violence against pro-democracy protesters on Tuesday as President Bashar al-Assad rejected a Turkish appeal to change tack or meet the fate of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.
  • (9) The prospect of Front National gains has left Sarkozy's ruling UMP party, a broad coalition of centre right and rightwing factions, scrapping over what tack to take to hang on to their seats.
  • (10) In the face of popular passions about immigration and the European Union, the Labour party has bobbed and tacked without taking a clear line.
  • (11) Along with some of his fellow Rangers, he walked me through the program – a strong, impressive young man, with an easy manner, sharp as a tack.
  • (12) An improved retinal tack and applicator can be used to fix the retina to the wall of the eye mechanically.
  • (13) In monkey eyes, histological examination disclosed a considerable fibrovascular proliferation around the retinal tack canal, including an inflammatory response, formation of collagenous tissue and glial proliferation.
  • (14) The correlation between the results of all these researches leaves little doubt on the existence of eye-tacking dysfunctions in schizophrenics.
  • (15) A previous owner tacked on additional rooms seemingly at random, giving the impression of a mad, elongated cottage with an internal maze.
  • (16) It's a change of tack for the Playboy brand after some troubled decades, and many believe this return to affluent values and women dressed as rabbits is exactly the right move.
  • (17) When practiced by several surgeons, the flap tacking procedure 1) reduces postmastectomy seromas and 2) reduces the amount of postoperative patient office visits and care.
  • (18) Those changes have not altered the fundamental structure of the system, but instead have been tacked onto it, and exemplify what may be termed additive reform.
  • (19) 4.09am GMT Saints 23-24 Eagles, 4:44, 4th quarter The Saints certainly have time here to respond, and in fact they might need so slow things down themselves after moving immediately up to the 48-yard line on a nice Darren Sproles kick return that had an additional 15 yards tacked on the end for a horsecollar tackle.
  • (20) Tritiated thymidine autoradiography was used to evaluate the proliferation of ocular tissues in response to tack insertion.

Words possibly related to "sail"